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LINCOLN. RAIL SPLITTER. 



THE HEROIC LIFE 



OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The Great Emancipator 



ILLUSTRATED 

In Black and White and with Colored Plates 



BOSTON 
DeWOLFE, FISKE & CO. 



Copyright, 1902 

By DeWolfe, Fiske & Ca 

Boston 

In Excliaago. 
Q 16 Mr'08 " 






THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




EARLY DAYS 

As the years roll by, the character and life of Abraham Lincoln stand out in 
grander and more heroic proportions. Boys and girls, as we have told you of 
Washington, the " Father of his Country," we want now to tell you of the great 

man who from the hum- 
blest surroundings and 
the most unlikely begin- 
ning, became President 
of the United States of 
America, and piloted this 
coiuitry through the great- 
est crisis in her history. 

In a rude log cabin 
near Nolin Creek in what 
is now the State of Ken- 
tucky, but which at that 
time was a part of the 
State of Virginia, was born 
Abraham Lincoln, the son 
of Thomas Lincoln and 
Nancy Hanks. The father 
^v^i^-r : ■ was a lazy ne'er-do-well, 

1^^^ but the mother was a 

woman of great force of 
character and passionately 

Lincoln's Birthplace fond of reading. 




4 THE HEROIC LH^'E OF 

Abraham was tlie firstborn, and then there was a sister Sarah, a year 
younger than he ; then came Thomas two years later, who died in infancy. 

The first schooHng Abraham got was from his mother, who taught his 
sister and him to spell and to read. When in his seventh year he went to 
school in the little log school-house near liis home. 

But Thomas Lincoln, the father, heard of the rich and fertile lands of 
Indiana, which had recently been admitted into the Union, and the tales of the 
Indians so inspired liim that he pulled up stakes and started for the new home, 
which to tliem was " the Land of Promise." With all their household stuff 
packed on two horses, they made their way, by night sleeping on the fragrant 
pine twigs, clearing their way through tangled thickets and fording the streams. 
At last after a week or more on the tiresome journey they came to the banks of 
the river and, looking over, they saw the almost trackless forest which was to be 
their home. 

The famil\- pushed their way forward, and on a grassy knoll in the heart of 
the untrodden forest the)' built their first rude cabin. 

Abraham was now in his eighth year. He was tall, thin and gawk\-, and 
clad in frontier fashion. He said himself he never wore stockings until he was 
a young man grown. 

In this log hut, in the first year of their frontier life, came their first great 
sorrow, the death of their mother, on the 3d of October. She was buried under 
the shade of a wide-spreading sycamore tree, and over her grave little Abe shed 
his first tears of real sorrow. Years after he would say with tear-dimmed eyes, 
"All I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother." 

In the autumn of 1S16, Thomas Lincoln, with the slight assistance 
little Abe could give him, felled the logs and " raised " a more substantial cabin. 

In the fall of i<Sig Thomas Lincoln went off, leaving the children to take 
care of themselves, and they heard nothing of him until one morning early in 
December the wanderer returned with a second wife, a Mrs. Sally Johnston. 
She was known to the children in Kentucky, so they warmly welcomed her and 
were good friends immediately. Of Abraham, the new mother said, in after 
years, " He ne\-er gave me a cross word and never refused to do anything I 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



5 



asked of him "; and of her, Abraham said, " She was a noble woman, affection- 
ate, good and kind woman, as I remember women in those days." 

She gave Abe new clothes and taught him how to make the best and do 
the most witli the few things he had, and encouraged him to read and study. 
He got hold of a volume of Cooper's " Leather Stocking Tales '" and a volume 




The Boy Lincoln Studying 



of Burns's poems. He would read them over and over again in his favorite 
position, outstretched on the floor, his head on his hands. 

Once he borrowed a book from an old farmer. It was a life of George 
Washington. For security it was kept between the logs of his cabin home, but 
one day the rain soaked in and spoiled the book. He took it to the farmer 
and asked how he could pay for it. 

" Wall," said the old farmer, " I guess 'taint much account to me now. You 
haul fodder for three days and the book is yours." 

So that's the way 3roung Abe earned his first book, and in the fields or on 
the wood-pile when not working he might ever be seen, book in hand, reading. 

But for all his love of reading he was the strongest boy in all the country 



6 THE HEROIC LH^'E OF 

round, and although not quarrelsome he could throw any boy in the neighbor- 
hood. He was the champion wrestler, and leader in every game of muscular 
skill. 

School was now within his reach. A school-house built of logs had been 
raised at Little Pigeon Creek, about a mile and one-half from Lincoln's home, 
and young Abe made the most of his opportunities. 

At this time he split rails for the farmers, and with his book in one hand, 
his eyes fixed on the page, his trusty axe in the other, he stalked along to his 
place of employment. 

At the age of seventeen an incident occurred which no doubt had an 
influence on his future life. No one can help noticing the rude, rough yet 
happy and humorous eloquence which characterized all Lincoln's lightest 
utterances as well as his greater speeches. 

Happening in the vicinity of the court house at Booneville, Warwick 
County, he heard the first great speech of his life from Breckenridge, the great 
lawyer of Kentucky. As he passed out of the court house, the lawyer was 
accosted by a tall, gawky youth of the poor farmer class, who with outstretched 
hand addressed the eminent lawyer, and thanked him for his wonderful speech. 
The aristocratic Breckenridge, with eyes uplifted in surprise, brushed the 
stranger aside. 

This gave Lincoln a taste for speechifying and he debated on every local 
topic and sometimes would get up mock trials, being in turn prosecutiog 
attorney, counsel for the defence, or judge. 

When about eighteen years of age he built a boat, loaded it with bacon 
and " garden truck " and paddled his cranky craft to the nearest trading post. 

After he had sold his little cargo a steamer — to him an unusual sight — 
approached in the river. Two men asked him to take them to the boat and 
to his surprise paid him in two silver half dollars. He could scarcely believe 
he had earned a whole dollar in so short a time. 

One year later Lincoln made his second voyage. A Mr. Gentry, the big 
trader of the village, who wished to send a load of produce to New Orleans in 
a ilat-bottomed scjuare boat, made the offer to young Lincoln, who accepted, 
as he afterwards said, with a beating heart, in the delight of seeing the world. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 7 

Accompanied by young Gentry he cut loose from Gentryville. and began a 
voyage of eighteen hundred miles, young Abe working the forward oar to 
guide the boat through the currents and avoid snags. They passed and were 
passed by other boats with but little incident, but one night when they were 
tied up to a bank and sleeping soundly after the toilsome day, some negroes 
tried to plunder the craft, but Abe woke at once and the first one who jumped 
on board was knocked into the river by a heavy blow from Abraham's fist; 
a second and a third were served the same way. The others made off, with 
Abe and young Gentry in pursuit, but the negroes eventually got away. 



SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 

Again the Lincolns moved westward, this time to Illinois. Thomas 
Hanks had settled in Macon County and had written Lincoln to come on with 
his family. Lincoln did «ot want much persuading, so he sold out his hogs 
and crops and farm improvements to Mr. Gentry in the spring of 1830. The 
entire family set out for the new " Land of Promise," for it was ever a land of 
promise to Thomas Lincoln. 

After two weeks of wearying travel they arrived at the settlement selected 
for them on public lands by Thomas Hanks. Young Lincoln lent a willing 
hand to the raising of the new house, and with Thomas Hanks ploughed the 
acres, cut down trees, split rails and fenced in his father's new Illinois farm. 

Abraham, now twenty-two years old, thought it about time to strike out 
for himself. 

During the summer he worked at odd jobs and soon got in favor with the 
rude pioneers of southern Illinois and made a name for himself as the most 
obliging, ungainly, strong and cheery fellow in the county. 



8 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

The winter was memorable for its deep snow, which long after the follow- 
ing spring left its traces, unmelted, stretching across the black soil of the prairies. 

Young Lincoln made the acquaintance of Denton Offut, a small trader, 
and he proposed that Lincoln and Hanks should take a boat-load of provisions 
to New Orleans. They were to have their food, fifty cents per day and twenty 
dollars each out of the profits. 

When the boat reached New Salem it stuck on a mill-dam, and the popu- 
lation turned out to see and chaff the wrecked mariners; but the " bow oar " 
rolled up his trousers, waded into the stream, unloaded the boat, bored holes in 
her bottom to let out the water and then rigged up a contrivance to hoist her 
over the dam. The holes were plugged, the boat loaded and the adventurous 
boatmen shot down stream amidst the cheers of the crowd. 

They had a prosperous journey to New Orleans and Lincoln saw many of 
the evils of slavery. Men and women were torn from their families and from 
each other. These sights made him in after years the " Emancipator." 

On his return from the trip Offut put him in charge of a small country 
store at New Salem. He was immovable from his strict notions of honesty in 
his dealings. Once when he made up his accounts he found that he had over- 
charged a customer a few cents. Late at night after he had closed the store he 
walked a long way to pay over the difference. Another time he had given a 
woman less weight than she had paid for; he took her the balance. 

In that day men were not as chivalrous and careful for women as they 
might have been, and there were bullies then as always. There were a lot of the 
boys, as they were termed, really overgrown young men, fighting, swaggering, 
roisterers, of a place called Clary's Grove, and they thought that the stranger at 
Offut's, who was well liked by the women, should be taken down a peg or two 
and the conceit knocked out of him. 

They chose Jack Armstrong, the bully of the gang, to get him into a wrest- 
ling match. Their champion was no match for Lincoln, and Jack Armstrong, in 
his desperation, tried foul means, but Lincoln, putting forth his giant strength, 
seized him and shook him as a dog would a rat, then flung him over his head. 
The crowd at this would have broken in on him, but Armstrong stopped them. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 9 

saying, " Abe Lincoln is tlie best fellow that ever came into this settlement," 
and ever after Lincoln had no truer friend than Jack Armstrong. 

Lincoln, though no fighter, feared no one, neither was he addicted to an}' 
of the rude vices of the period ; he never gambled, played cards or swore. He 
was reckoned a hero, was liked by the women and respected by the ciders as a 




LiNcoT.N Steering the Flatboat to New Orleans 



rising young man. His title of honor was " Honest Abe," and Offut's store 
door was the scene of many an arbitration settlement, and where argument 
failed those windmill arms finally brought peace. 

Offut's store at length shut up. The proprietor's ventures had pro\ecl too 
many for him, and Lincoln was out of a job. One day at the bottom of a barrel 
of trash Lincoln found two old law-books. He never quitted those books until 
he had mastered their contents. In the little community, it was agreed that 
Abe Lincoln could out-argue any ten men. 



THE HEROIC LIFE OF 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR 

Lincoln now determined to try politics and became a candidate for the 
Legislature, but before the day of the election volunteers were called for to 
repel the hostile Indians who, with the famous chief Black Hawk, were on the 
war-path. 

Lincoln was among the first to volunteer, and with a party of the Clary's 
Grove boys made his way north, and when the company was organized in Rush- 
ville he was made captain, for the Clary's Grove boys would have none other as 
their leader. 

One day an old Indian came into camp with a safe-conduct from General 
Cass. The soldiers, maddened by recent atrocities of the Indians, would have 
slain the old man, but Lincoln stood before him and stopped them, saying, 
" Boys, you must not do this thing. You shall not shoot the Indian." The 
men sullenly lowered their guns, subdued by the courage of their captain. 

Lincoln was the advance guard of all scouting parties. His keen sight and 
subtle woodcraft gave him an insight into Indian strategy that might have emu- 
lated some of the trappers in the " Leather Stocking Tales " of his youthful 
days. 

But the war, which was not much of a war, was soon over. When Lincoln 
was in Congress, in 1S48, General Cass was candidate for the Presidency, and 
his friends tried to run him on his war record. Lincoln, who, as you know was 
full of rugged humor, in the course of the debate addressed the chair. He 
said : 

" Did you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a military hero.'' In the days of the 
Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came away. I was not at Stillman's defeat, 
but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like 
him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break 
my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badl)- on one 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN ii 

occasion. If General Cass went in advance of me picking whortleberries, I 
guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live, fight- 
ing Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles 
with the mosquitoes ; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can 
truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if ever I should conclude to 
doff whate\'er our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade 
Federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate 
for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as they have of 
General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero." 




Lincoln Keeping Store 



IN NEW SALEM 



Soon after Lincoln's return from the Black Hawk War, the election came 
on. He received a majority of votes in New Salem, his two opponents receiv- 
ing 206 votes to his 207. Though he was defeated in tne whole county, his 
jDopularity in his own district pleased him very much. 

Lincoln now had to turn to something for a living, and he bought out on 



12 THE HEROIC LH^']': OE 

a note the store of a man who was so unpojHilar to the Clary's (irove boys that 
they broke in the windows. In this enterprise Lincohi had a ])artner, an idle, 
dissolute fellow of the name of Berry, and in a very short time the stock had to 
be sold out in lots to close the concern. 

Lincoln was again out of a job. and in his extremity lie turned to law. 
Whenever there was any law wanted all his neighbors went to Lincoln, who 
never took up a case unless he was satisfied that it was a right one. Together 
with law he joined a little surveying, and Mr. John Calhoun, the county sur- 
veyor, was a useful friend to him. 

In Mav, 1833, Abraham Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New .Salem. 
The work was light and the revenue as light as the work, but he took part of 
his salary out in reading the newspapers before they could be called for. In 
later years the post-ofifice was discontinued and the agent of the department 
called for the small balance due the Government — seventeen dollars and a few 
cents. A neighbor, Dr. A. G. Henry, fearing from his extreme poverty that 
Lincoln might not have the money, offered to lend it to him. " Hold hard," 
said Lincoln, " and let's see how we come out," and bringing out an old stock- 
ing from his bedroom, poured out the contents and there, in pennies and small 
silver pieces, was the exact money as he had received it. 

The debts of the New .Salem store pressed on him, and the sheriff seized 
his horse and harness and sold it out. His steadfast friend, Bolin Greene, was 
present and bought and gave them back to Lincoln, to his great relief, saying, 
"Take them, Abe; pay for them when you can, and if you never can it's all 
the same to me." 

Not long afterward, Greene died and Lincoln was asked to pronounce the 
funeral eulogy, but tears choked his utterance and he sat down without uttering 
a word ; his silent tears spoke more eloquently than words. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 13 



ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE 

Lincoln tried politics again in 1834, and tliis time lie headed the four suc- 
cessful candidates. He was now twenty-five years old ; he had mastered the 
elements of law, was versed in legal phraseology and law terms, and knew all 
the country roads. 

His library consisted principal!)' of the Bible, Shakespere, " The Pilgrim's 
Progress," the " Life of George Washington," and /Esop's Fables — not a great 
library, but he made full use of it. 

Lincoln, in his blue jeans, with his great height (then six feet four inches), 
was a marked figure in the Legislature. Though seldom speaking, he was 
keenly alive to all that went on. He was learning and waiting patiently till his 
time came. 

The next year he was again elected with the largest vote of any successful 
candidate. During his canvass, he had a tiff with Forquier, who had been 
brought in to boom Lincoln's Democratic opponent. Forquier from a Whig 
had become a " whole-hog Jackson man." Forquier's house had a lightning-rod 
conductor. Forquier spoke before Lincoln, ridiculing Lincoln's dress, manners 
and personal appearance, and styled him the uncouth youngster. Lincoln 
closed the debate. Rising, with flashing eyes, he said, " I am not so young in 
years as I am in the tricks and trades of a politician; but live long or die young, 
I would rather die now than, like that gentleman, change my politics, and with 
the change receive an ofifice worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel 
obliged to erect a lightning-rod conductor over my house to protect a guilty 
conscience from an offended God." The effect on his hearers was immense. 
Whenever Forquier afterwards addressed the voters they said, " That's the 
man who has a lightning-rod on his house to keep off the vengeance of the 
Ahnighty." 

In April, 1837, Lincoln rode into Springfield, the new capital of the State. 
He proposed to establish himself in the practice of law. He asked his friend, 



14 THE HEROIC LH^'E OF 

Mr. Joshua F". Speed, what he should do for board and lodging. Speed replied, 
" I have a large double bed which you may share with me if you choose." 

" Where is your bed.''" asked Lincoln. "Upstairs," replied Speed. Lin- 
coln took his saddle-bags upstairs in which were all his earthly possessions, and 
soon came down again and said with a good-humored laugh, " Speed, I am 
moved." 

Lincoln, as was usual with lawyers, rode horseback making the circuit, 
following the judge and carrying in his saddle-bag a change of underclothes and 
a few law-books. It was on these journeys Lincoln picked out from all classes 
the stories of the wild West which afterwards made him so famous as a story- 
teller. 

Lincoln retained his reputation as " Honest Abe," never if he knew it tak- 
ing up a doubtful case, nor would he resort to legal technicalities to win a case. 

In 1840 Harrison was elected. The " log cabin " campaign had been fought. 
The Democrats were beaten, and the Whigs, after along recess, were returned to 
power. 

November 4th of that year, Lincoln married a Miss Todd, a bright and 
roo-uish young lady with whom he had long been acquainted, but had not 
possessed means sufficient to marry. The young couple lodged at a modest 
boarding house called the Globe Tavern, not far from the State House. That 
Lincoln's means, even then, were not very large may be gathered from a letter 
to a friend, in which when speaking of his new happiness, and of the cheapness 
of living, he said it only cost four dollars a week for board and lodging. 

Lincoln long had the ambition to go to Congress, but it happened that 
all his Whig friends seemed equally desirous to leave Sangamon County. In 
1843 Lincoln was a delegate to the convention and was instructed to vote for 
Edward D. Baker. He remarked good-humoredly, " I shall be a good deal like 
the fellow who is made groomsman to the man who cut him out and is marry- 
ing the girl." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



15 



LINCOLN IN CONGRESS 

Lincoln was nominated for Congress in 1846, and his ambition was witliin 
his reach. He was elected over his opponent on the Democratic ticket, Cart- 
wright, a backwoods preacher, and who was very popular, by a majority of 1,61 1 




Lincoln Wrestling with Armstrong 

Lincoln was elected to the Thirtieth Congress, and took his seat the 6th 
of December, 1847. James K. Polk was President of the United States, and in 
his message to Congress he endeavored to show that the war with Mexico was 
just and that his conduct was right in all that he had done to make that war 
inevitable. Lincoln introduced three resolutions asking the President for in- 
formation. In each of these he made use of the word spot, referring to the 
place in which certain American citizens had been killed. The defendants of 
the war and of the position taken by the President could not reply to the 
backwoods lawyer from Illinois; they called him "Spot Lincoln." In his 



i6 THE HEROIC LIFIC OF 

speech in reply, he severely arraigned the administration for the annexation of 
Texas, which had involved the country in a bloody and unjust war with Mexico. 

Lincoln took part in most of the debates, and his speeches were always to 
the point and showed considerable humor. Speaking of General Lewis Cass, 
who was to be the Democratic candidate for President, and of his operations on 
the Canadian border, he said, " he /wvaded Canada without resistance, and he 
ou^vaded without pursuit." 

In 1848 General Taylor was nominated at Philadelphia for President by 
the Whigs. Lincoln was a delegate to the convention and was an enthusiastic 
supporter of the General — the hero of Buena Vista. The General's manners 
were blunt and abrupt, and earned him the appellation of " Rough and Ready," 
which was made the battle-cry of the campaign. The Electoral College gave 
Taylor 163 against 137 for Cass. 

Taylor now being President, and according to the maxim, " To the victors 
belong the spoils," all Democrats had to give place to the Whigs. Lincoln 
tried for the office of Commissioner of the General Land Office. To the sur- 
prise of himself and his friends, he was refused, but a consolation prize was 
offered, that of Governorship of Oregon. At his wife's advice he refused the 
bait. 

Of Lincoln's family of four sons, Robert Todd, the Secretary of War under 
Garfield and Arthur, is the only survivor. Edward Baker, the second, died in 
infancy. The third died in his father's Presidency, and the fourth died at the 
age of nineteen, after his father's assassination. 

His father lived to see his "speechifying" son one of the best known 
lawyers of the State, and was helped by him as soon as his load of debt was 
lifted, and other members of the family he helped from his frugal means. In a 
letter to his step-brother Abraham wrote, " At the various times when I have 
helped you a little, you have said to me, ' We can get along very well now,' 
but in a short time I find you in the same difficulty." 

His care for his step-mother is seen in a letter to his step-brother. He says, 
" The eastern forty acres I intend to keep for mother while she lives. If you 
will not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her." He urges him "to 
"o to work as the onlv cure for his case." 




THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 17 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 

It has already been said that " Lincoln disdained all legal quibbles "; he 
relied always on the justice of his case, and won his suit by close argument, 
depending on the idea of justice in the jury. 

For instance, an old man named Case brought suit for a note given by the 
" Snow boys " for three yoke of oxen and a " breaking plough." The defence 
set up was a plea of infancy. Lincoln admitted the plea, but brought out that 
the Snow boys were still using the oxen and the plough, and then addressing 
the jury said: 

"Gentlemen, the Judge will tell you what your own sense of justice has 
already told you, that these Snow boys, if they were mean enough to plead the 
baby act, when they came to be men would have taken the oxen and plough back ; 
they cannot go back on their contract, and also keep what the note was given for." 

The jury without leaving their seats gave a verdict for Lincoln's client. 

Lincoln had several important slavery cases. A very notable one was the 
case of a negro girl who had been sold as a slave and a note taken in payment. 
The note was not raised, suit was brought to recover the amount, and judg- 
ment was given for the plaintiff. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, 
and Lincoln, who appeared for the maker of the note, contended that, as the 
consideration for the note was a human being, and under the laws of Illinois 
could not be bought and sold, the note was void. The Court reversed the 
judgment. Lincoln was then thirty-two years old, and his connection with so 
important a suit, as well as the novelty of the plea, added no little to his 
reputation. 

You will remember the big bully Jack Armstrong, one of the Clary's 
Grove boys, whom Lincoln defeated in wrestling and who afterwards became 
Lincoln's warm friend. He died, and his widow came to Lincoln to seek his 
aid for her son, William D. Armstrong, who was in prison for murder. Lincoln 
at once took up the case, sifted all the facts thoroughly and became quite 



1 8 THE HEROIC lAFE OF 

assured that the boy was innocent. The evidence was mostly circumstantial, 
but one witness swore to too much. He swore that " he saw tlie prisoner 
inflict the fatal blow with a sling shot by the light of the moon, which was 
shining brightly." 

Lincoln tore the evidence to pieces, showed that the whole case was a 
conspiracy against young Armstrong, and when he came to the evidence of the 
man who swore that he saw " the blow being given by the light of the moon, 
which was shining brightly," Lincoln called for an almanac, which showed that 
on the night of the murder there was no moon. This settled the matter. The 
jury at once returned a verdict of not guilty, and Bill Armstrong was free. 

Lincoln refused to receive any compensation from the grateful mother. 

As a lawyer Lincoln was without any of the graces of oratory, and had 
a harsh, shrill voice, which was combined with a homel3^ not to say ungainly, 
appearance. It was only when the inspiration of his subject aroused him that 
his eyes flashed fire, his whole figure changed and he seemed, as one of his 
auditors said, " to be about twenty feet high." 



DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN 

In 1850 Lincoln's father died. Lincoln was unable through stress of 
public affairs and his own private concerns to go to see him. He wrote to his 
step-brother telling him to press on his father to " remember to call upon and 
confide in our great and good and merciful Father and Maker, who will not 
turn from him in any extremity." 

At this time, slavery seemed fixed as a part of our national institutions. 
Congress had enacted a series of acts which greatly discouraged Lincoln and 
all the anti-slavery party, but in 1854 there was a great awakening. Kansas 
and Nebraska were clamoring for admittance, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas 
of Illinois introduced a bill, admitting the two Territories, but leaving the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 19 

question of slavery to be settled by the voters in defiance of the Missouri Com- 
promise, which prohibited slavery in those Territories. The act was passed 
through Congress May 8, 1854, amid great popular excitement. The whole 
Northern States were fired with indignation and Douglas was denounced as 
a political trickster who had sold himself to gain the support of the slave States 
in his candidacy for President. 

Douglas defended himself with great skill and the most brazen audacity, 
contending that the popular will should be sovereign and determine for or 
against slavery in each State. The question was to be left to the settlers on a 
Territory, who were called squatters, and the Douglas party invented as a cam- 
paign cry the phrase " squatter sovereignty." 

Then began the struggle to gain possession of the new Territory. Kansas 
was the great objective point, as being readiest of access, and received a large 
portion of the flow of immigration, but Missouri and Arkansas — both slave 
States — determined to save Kansas for slavery and swarmed over the borders. 

Douglas undertook to speak at the Illinois State Agricultural Fair at 
Springfield in defence of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and Lincoln was by com- 
mon consent chosen as the best qualified to meet the Senator. Douglas was 
the avowed leader of the Western Democrats, and the head of his party in the 
North, where they had begun to call themselves " Douglas Democrats," and 
this was his supreme effort. 

The next day Lincoln replied to him. Douglas interrupted him with 
impertinent questions to endeavor to break him down and get him rattled, but 
Lincoln said, " Gentlemen, I cannot afford to spend my time in quibble. I take 
the responsibility of asserting the truth myself, relieving Judge Douglas from 
the necessity of his impertinent corrections." Douglas allowed him to continue 
his speech without further interruption, which occupied over three hours in 
delivery. 

In the course of his speech in answer to Douglas's favorite doctrine, that 
the right to introduce slavery into a Territory by the vote of the people was the 
right of popular sovereignty, and that it was an insult to the emigrants of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska to say that they were not able to govern themselves, Lincoln 
replied, " I admit that the emigrant to Kansas or Nebraska is competent to 



20 THE HEROIC LH^'E OF 

o-ovcrn himself, but I deny his right to govern any other person without that 
persons consent." 

Uouglas felt that he was beaten. Excited and angry, he took the platform, 
contended that he had been abused, and attempted to reply, but faltered, and at 
last said he would reply in the evening. Hut when the evening came, Douglas 
was conspicuous by his absence, and the promised repl)- was never made. 

Kansas meanwhile was the battlefield of the Free Soil party, and in spite 
of all efforts by the pro-slavery men emigrants were pouring in from Iowa, New 
Eno-land and Illinois, and something had to be done to turn back the tide to 
the free States; the ballot-box stuffers who trooped over the border from Mis- 
souri and Kansas openly said " they would make it hot for any abolitionist,"' 
and that " they would cut out the heart of any man who voted the abolition 
ticket."' Those border rufifians invaded the State, burning the cabins and fields 
of standing grain and devastating the country for miles. 

In the elections the Free State men were no match for those border ruffians, 
who took possession of the polls and allowed no votes to be deposited except for 
slavery, while they stuiTed the ballot-box with whole pages of names from the 
St. Louis directory. ^Outrages and personal violence were resorted to and the 
Free State men were lucky if they escaped with their lives. 



BIl^TH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 

The trend of public events and public feeling had for some time shown 
that the Whig party was dying out and though Lincoln was still reckoned a 
Whig he only waited for a competent successor. He hesitated to throw him- 
self into the ranks of the Free Soil party, but at length he took his stand as the 
champion for the abolition of slavery until in his own words, " The sun shall 
shine, the rain shall fall, and the wind shall blow upon no man who goes forth 
to unrequited toil." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 21 

But the long-looked-for came at last. A mass meeting was held at Eloom- 
ington, 111., May 29, 1856, but they could not unite on any platform except hos- 
tility to slavery. In this extremity Lincoln was sent for. He at once said, " Let 
us, in building our new party, make our corner-stone the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Let us build on this rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against us." This simple but sufficient platform was approved by all present 
and embodied in a resolution. 




Lincoln Telling a Story 



The Republican party was born. Lincoln's speech thrilled and kindled 
the convention. One who was present said that never was an audience more 
completely electrified by human eloquence. 

The first Republican National Convention was held at Philadelphia, June 
17, 1856. John Charles Fremont, of California, was- nominated for President, 
and William L. Dayton for Vice-President. Lincoln was proposed by the Illi- 
nois delegates, and he received iio votes against Dayton's twenty-five. When 



22 THE HEROIC LH^^E OF 

Lincoln heard of the votes cast for him he said, " That is probably the distin- 
guished Mr. Lincoln, of Massachusetts." He had no idea of how his fame was 
spreading. 

In the Democratic Convention, Stephen A. Douglas was beaten by 
Buchanan. In the election, Buchanan, as Lincoln predicted, was the people's 
choice with 174 electoral votes from fourteen slave States and five free States. 

Douglas realizing that slavery was doomed, and desiring to have the 
support of the Illinois Republicans in his candidacy for a fresh term, began to 
differ with the President, but they distrusted the Senator and declared for 
Abraham Lincoln as their first and last and only choice for a Senator to 
succeed Douglas. 

Lincoln did not underestimate the abilities and craftiness of his great 
opponent, and he knew that as yet the people were not fully ripe for human 
freedom, and he framed his speech to the convention that had nominated him, 
putting into it the platform of the campaign. Lincoln read his speech to his 
partner, Mr. W. H. Herndon. The first paragraph dismayed him, as it almost 
endorsed the old anti-slavery doctrine of disunion. Mr. Herndon doubted if 
the time was ripe for this utterance, alluding to the phrase — since famous — 
" A house divided against itself cannot stand." Lincoln replied, " The proposi- 
tion has been true for six thousand years. I will deliver the speech as it is 
written." 

The struggle was bitter. Douglas took up this speech of Lincoln's, claim- 
ing that it advocated a war of sections, between the North and South. 

The two great points before the public were " the Dred Scott decision " 
and the struggle in Kansas. The Dred Scott decision, so called, arose from 
the decision of Chief Justice Taney that, by the Constitution of the Republic, 
slavery existed in all the Territories and Congress had no right to prohibit it. 

This decision was in the case of a negro of that name who had, with his 
wife and children, been carried into a Territory north of the Missouri, where 
slavery was excluded by the Missouri Compromise. He spoke for his freedom, 
claiming that he had become freed by the operation of the law. 

Against the advice of his timorous friends Lincoln agreed to joint debates 
with Douglas, in which everybody felt he had the best of it, and Douglas 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 23 

seemed to think so too. At one of these debates, Douglas was seized with 
a panic, left his seat and walked up and down, watch in hand, " his long grizzly 
hair like the shaggy locks of an enraged lion." The instant Lincoln's time was 
up he turned the face of the watch to Lincoln and cried, " Sit down, Lincoln, 
sit down; your time is up." 

Lincoln calmly replied, " I will quit. I believe my time is up." Some one 
on the platform said, " Yes, let him up ; Douglas has had enough." 

In Lincoln's view the Dred Scott decision and Douglas's doctrine of 
popular sovereignty could not hold together, and Lincoln framed his questions 
so as to oblige Douglas to admit or deny the abstract rights of slavery. His 
friends urged him not to put the question, because they said Douglas would 
admit the justice of the decision, but that it should not be enforced in the 
Territories. 

They said, "That is not your lookout; you are after the senatorship." 
" No, gentlemen," said Lincoln,"! am killing larger game; the battle of i860 
is worth a hundred of this." 

When the returns were in, Lincoln had 126,048 votes, Douglas, 121,440. 
Douglas was subsequently elected by the Legislature, but the popular as well 
as the moral victory was Lincoln's. 



"I AM KILLING LARGER GAME" 

Lincoln at once resumed his practice of the law. When asked by a friend 
how he felt at his defeat he good-humoredly replied, " Like the boy who 
stubbed his toe too badly to laugh and was too big to cry." 

The joint debates with Douglas had extended his fame, and invitations 
came from all the Northern States for his services. 

On May 10, 1859, the Republican Convention was held in Decatur, Macon 



24 TH1-: HEROIC LIFE OF 

County, 111., to which Lincoln was a delegate. As soon as his tall, lanky form 
appeared on the platform the whole of the company assembled rose and 
cheered themselves hoarse, " as if they would never stop," said one w^ho was 
present. 

When order was restored, the Governor of Illinois, Richard Oglesby, said, 
" An old-time Macon County Democrat wished to present a contribution to 
the Convention." This announcement aroused the curiosity of the delegates. 

When the "contribution " was brought in by Thomas Hanks, it was found 
to consist of two ancient-looking fence-rails decorated with the national colors. 
On the rails was an inscription : " Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Candidate for 
the Presidency in iS6o. Two rails from a lot of three thousand made in 1830 
by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose father was Thomas Lincoln, the 
first pioneer in Macon County." The contribution was received with cheers 
and yells and the wildest enthusiasm. 

From that day Lincoln was hailed as the Rail Splitter of Illinois, though 
some who knew his anti-slavery principles asked anxiously, " Would he split the 
Union as he did the rails .f" " 

In the winter of 1859-60 he visited Kansas. Tremendous enthusiasm 
everywhere greeted him. Great processions followed him from halls to his 
hotels. 

In Ohio he spoke several times, and being near the border, he spoke to 
the Kentuckians and asked, " Are you going to build up a wall some way 
between your country and ours by which that movable property of yours can't 
come over here any more to the danger of your losing it? " 

Lincoln had entertained a kind of dread of the Eastern people, but he 
received an invitation from Henry Ward Beecher to speak in Plymouth 
Church. He accepted the invitation, but the place was afterwards changed to 
the hall of the Cooper Union, at that time one of the largest halls in the United 
States. 

His style of address was new and fresh, his illustrations so clear that the 
vast audience was spellbound, until he reached a climax, when the thunders of 
applause shook the hall The Illinois backwoodsman had conquered the East. 

He concluded his tour with an address to the Republicans. He said: 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 25 

" Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us nor 
frightened from it by menaces to the Government. Let us have faith that 
makes right, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we un- 
derstand it." 



ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY 

The South was dismayed; threats of secession were in the air, and many 
wanted the South "reassured," but Lincoln, in his great Cooper Union speech, 
said to the threatening crowd, " You say you will destroy the Union and then 
you say the great crime of having destroyed it will be put upon us; that's cool. 
A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear and mutters through his teeth, ' Stand 
and deliver or I will kill you and then you will be a murderer.' " 

The Republican National Convention met at Chicago, June 17, i860. 
Every one felt that a crisis was impending. The Democrats were hopelessly 
divided on the pro-slavery question. Millions of human beings were bought 
and sold and in bondage as if they were cattle. The Richmond Convention, 
composed entirely of pro-slavery Democrats, had nominated John C. Brecken- 
ridge. The Regular Democrats, as they called themselves, in Baltimore nomi- 
nated Stephen A. Douglas. 

The Republican Convention could only nominate a man pledged to the 
principle quoted in Lincoln's utterance, " All men are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness." 

Chicago was crowded with strangers from all parts of the Union. " The 
Wigwam," vast as it was, could hardly hold a tithe of the crowd that struggled 
around it. 

Amidst intense excitement one more plank for the platform was offered by 
I. R. Giddings, delegate from Ohio. It was the clause from the Declaration of 



26 THE HEROIC LH^'E OF 

Independence that " all men are born free and equal." It was accepted, together 
with the whole of serious and courageous resolutions which had set men's hearts 
on fire through the campaign, and they were adopted with the wildest enthusi- 
asm, and the ringing cheers of the thousands in the building were taken up in 
the streets down to the Lake front. On balloting only the names of Seward 
and Lincoln were received with any great demonstration. On the first ballot 
Lincoln had 102 votes, on the second he gained seventy-six, and on the third he 
lacked only one and one-half to gain the nomination. Ohio changed four of its 
votes to Abraham Lincoln. The battle was won. Lincoln was nominated. 

After a moment's pause the pent-up feelings of the surging thousands 
broke all bounds. Men threw away their hats and hugged and kissed each 
other. Outside, cannon thundered, bells rang. The beloved, the great, grand 
man was nominated. Later in the day Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was nomi- 
nated for Vice-President. 

In Springfield Lincoln quietly waited to hear the news. At length a spe- 
cial telegraph messenger arrived, who, jumping on a table, cried, " Three cheers 
for Abraham Lincoln, the next President of the United States!" The cheers 
were given with hearty good-will and rang and reverberated through the streets 
of the city. 

Lincoln shook hands with his friends and neighbors and pocketed the tele- 
gram saying, " There is a little woman on Eighth Street would like to see this," 
and walked home to tell the news. 

The Presidential campaign of that year had never been and will never be 
equalled. The wave of enthusiasm broke all bounds. In the free States rails 
and rail-splitting were popular symbols. 

Lincoln stayed quietly in Springfield. A large room in the Capitol was 
assigned to him, and he received visitors and transacted business between the 
June nomination and the election in November; but he made no speeches and 
no public demonstration ; he waited calmly and quietly for the nation's verdict. 

When the election returns were in, Lincoln had received 180 electoral votes 
and a popular vote of 1,866,452, the largest popular vote ever polled up to that 
time for any Presidential candidate. 

Lincoln's elation at his great victory was not unmixed with sadness. He 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 27 

felt the great responsibility that rested on him ; he foresaw the troubles with the 
South, and all the possible results of the anti-slavery problem, and on the day 
after his triumph a strange incident happened, but he never told it until after 
his election for a second term. He said : 

" It was just after my election in i860, when the news had been coming in 
thick and fast all day, and there had been a great ' Hurrah, boys ! ' so that I was 
well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my 
chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it, 
and, looking in that glass, I saw myself reflected, nearly at full length; but my 
face, I noticed, had tzvo separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one 
being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, per- 
haps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On 
lying down again I saw it a second time — plainer, if possible, than before ; and 
then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler, say five shades, than the 
other. I got up and the thing melted away, and I went off and, in the excite- 
ment of the hour, forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would 
once in a while come up, and give me a little pang, as though something un- 
comfortable had happened. Later in the day, I told my wife about it, and a few 
days after, I tried the experiment again, when, sure enough, the thing came 
again ; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I 
once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was v/orried about it 
somewhat. She thought it was ' a sign ' that I was to be elected to a second 
term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I 
should not see life through the last term." 

Lincoln took this portent as only an optica! illusion, but tried in vain to 
dismiss it from his mind. Its tragic fulfilment is another instance of those 
strange mysteries which confound the wisest. 



28 THE HEROIC IJFE OF 



LINCOLN AT WASHINGTON 

Lincoln with his family, and accompanied by a few friends, left Spring- 
field for Washington, February ii, 1861. It was with mingled feelings that he 
left his Illinois home, and he bade a manly and touching farewell to his friends 
and neighbors, concluding: 

" Trusting in Him who will go with me and remain with you and be 
everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His 
care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid 
you an affectionate farewell." 

On his way from Illinois to the Capitol, wherever his car passed, immense 
crowds lined the roads and blocked the railroad stations, impatient for a speech, 
but Lincoln was reluctant to break his rule or to outline his future policy. He 
spoke but seldom and then but briefly, and mostly asked questions for the 
people to ponder on, judging it wiser than making declarations or assertions. 

The entire route was one continued ovation, as he travelled over the States 
of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. 

At Philadelphia, according to a previous appointment, he raised a flag 
over Independence Hall. Later in the day he addressed the Legislature at 
Harrisburg. Threats of assassination were current, but Lincoln said, " Both of 
these appointments I will keep if it costs me my life." 

Lincoln was inaugurated at the national capital March 4, 1861. The 
group was one of historic interest, comprising many or most of the notable 
men of the day. The crowd assembled to see and hear the new President was 
enormous. 

Lincoln's address was most masterly. He dwelt conservatively on the 
o-reat and burning questions of the day, and he concluded with the pathetic and 
eloquent words : 

"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be 
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



29 



affectioit. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and 

patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all o\'er this broad land, will 

yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, 

by the better angels of our nature." 

When Lincoln rose to 
begin his address, looking 
for a place for his hat his 
i\e caught that of Douglas, 
who reached forward and 
took it. When Lincoln had 
finished his address he 
restored it to its owner and 
at the same time warmly 
grasped the President's hand 
and pledged that he would 
>tand by him. The two men 
clasped hands and were 
friends ever after. 

Lincoln's first Cabinet 
was a notable one. Four of 
the members had been can- 
didates for the Presidential 
nomination ; viz., Seward, 
Chase, Bates and Cameron. 
Mr. Seward was a man of 
great following and of great 
ability, and there were many 
who supposed that .Seward 
would be the power behind 

the President, but Lincoln soon proved to Seward and the world that he alone 

was President of the United States. 

Lincoln was now installed in the White House* but the times and the 

circumstances were most perilous. The Rebel Congress, assembled at Mont- 




Dhkknse of Fort: Sumpter 



30 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

gomery, liad sent commissioners to Washington, as if they were representatives 
of a foreign country, to negotiate a treaty with the Federal Government. Lin- 
coln refused to receive them. They delay.ed their departure as long as possible, 
but after receipt of Mr. Seward's memorandum formally telling them that they 
could not be recognized by the Government of the United States, the commis- 
sioners in their reply said, referring to the President's intention to send relief 
to Fort Sumter, that this was in effect a declaration of war against the Con- 
federate States, and that as representatives of their people " they accepted the 
gage of battle which had been thrown down to them." But Lincoln made no 
sign. He waited for the Confederate States to fire the first gun. Many men 
in the North clamored for a vigorous policy, but Lincoln was determined that 
the overt act for which both sides were waiting should come from the Con- 
federate States. 

North and South both looked to Fort Sumter. The Confederates regard- 
ing its continued occupation as a menace to Charleston, and as being within 
the limits of the Confederacy, it was now the property of the seceded States as 
a part of their share of the joint property of the divided Union. 

A demand was made on Major Anderson, who was in command of the 
fort, for its surrender, but he declined. He was then asked if he would evacuate 
the fort. He replied if he did not receive instructions or succor from the 
North before the 15th he would leave it on that day. Beauregard sent a dis- 
patch, dated Charleston, April 12, 1861,3.30 a. m., that in one hour he would 
open fire on the fort. Having a force of but sixty-five, and those nearly fam- 
ished. Major Anderson, after a few brief replies to the fierce cannonading of the 
rebels, on the following day, April i3tli, raised the flag for the last time and 
saluted with fifty guns. Then the brave soldiers marched out and the Con- 
federacy was in possession of Fort Sumter. 

Lincoln, by his long-suffering patience, had achieved his point — the 
"overt act" had been committed by the Confederates, and in an instant, the 
whole of the North was united as one man. All part\- distinctions were swept 
aside ; no one would listen to any compromise ; the loyal people everywhere 
demanded that the insult should be avenged. 

With this decisive act, Lincoln rose to the occasion. Before the firing on 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 31 

Fort Sumter he had seen his darkest days, and was depressed at the thought of 
impending war, but the voice of the sovereign people stimulated and encour- 
aged the President. The whole people were at his back. God had prepared 
the man for the hour. 

Events crowded in rapid succession. Troops marching to the relief of 
Washington were fired on in Baltimore and several of the soldiers were killed. 
The President, by a proclamation dated April 19, 1S61, declared the ports of 
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina in a state 
of blockade. A week later Virginia and North Carolina were added to the 
list of blockaded ports. 

In this juncture, Stephen A. Douglas died on the 3d of June. Douglas 
had warmly commended Lincoln's course and had a memorable interview with 
the President. In the month following Douglas addressed large meetings in 
Ohio and Illinois to strengthen the administration. Towards the end of May 
he sickened and was ill but a few days and died on the 3d of June, greatly 
^lamented by all, and by none more than by Lincoln, his old-time opponent. 

Jefferson Davis, a man of culture, himself an aristocrat, moving in the 
highest social' circles, was pitted against Abe Lincoln, the backwoodsman of 
Illinois ; war was on, the issues sharply defined. Davis and the Confederacy 
contended for the State rights as against the Union. Lincoln contended more 
logically that the whole was greater than a part, that the nation composed of the 
several States had paramount authority, and that no State could leave the Union 
and so dissolve the bond without committing thereby an act of treason. 

The Battle of Bull Run, on the 19th to the 21st of July, was the open- 
ing of the four years' war and was a great disaster to the North. The troops 
of the Union were raw and undisciplined, their three months' service was 
in many cases nearly expired and their military enthusiasm had well-nigh 
evaporated. They were from the counter or the farm and were impatient of 
military restrictions, and to add to this trouble, the officers were mainly from 
civil life and poorly acquainted with their duties. 

The Confederates, on the other hand, though their troops were as untrained 
as the Northern men, had many capable officers who had been educated in the 
military service. 



32 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

Tlic Union forces were commanded by General Irvin McDowell, while 
the Confederates were commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston and General 
Heau regard. 

The first success was with the Union troops, but Johnston was not held 
in check by General Patterson, who commanded a contingent of the Union 
Arm)-. The Union lines weakened and the troops broke and fled in wildest 
confusion, abandoning their arms, and crowded into Washington over the 
Potomac witli exaggerated stories of defeat. 

Congress was in session at the time of the Battle of Bull Run. The 
President asked for men and money. The Congress appropriated five hundred 
million dollars and authorized him to call for five hundred thousand men. The 
nation now saw that it was to be a fight to the finish. 

The United States seemed likely to have her hands full, for on November 
8, 1861, Captain Wilkes, commander of the "San Jacinto," United States man- 
of-war, fired a shot across the bow of the " Trent," an English packet-ship, 
and took from her two Confederate envoys to England and France, who had 
taken passage on the " Trent." 

The seizure created the most intense excitement. The people everywhere 
looked upon it as an answer to the English and French Governments, who 
were not very friendly to the Union cause. Great Britain demanded that the 
envoys should be given up, as they were under the protection of the British 
flag. The unanimous cry was, " We will never give them up." Congress 
passed a vote of thanks to Captain W^ilkes. 

But Lincoln, calm as ever in the face of poinilar clamor, looked carefully 
into the case and decided that the envoys must be given up, for, said he, " Once 
we fought Great Britain for doing just what Captain Wilkes has done; if Great 
Britain protests against this act and demands their release, w^e must adhere to 
our principles of 181 2 — we must give up these prisoners. Besides, one war 
at a time." 

Lincoln's wise counsel at length won the day — the envoys were 
surrendered. 

In 1862 came up the cjuestion of arming the freedmen. There were many 
thousands employed in the camp and Lincoln said, " If they stake their life 




PRESIDEN- 



}NING A PARDON 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



33 



for us they must be prompted by the strongest of motives, even the promise 
■of freedom, and the promise being made must be kept." Meanwhile the Con- 
federate Army under General Lee had achieved more notable successes, and 
had crossed the Potomac into Maryland. This was an invasion of a border 
State still loyal to the Union. The country was greatly stirred, and Lincoln 
had prepared the draft of an emancipation proclamation, but hesitated to put 
it forth ; but at this menace to the national capital, he vowed to God if the 
invaders were expelled he would at once issue the long-deferred proclamation. 




Drafting the Emancipation Proclamation 



At the Battle of South Mountain, on the 14th, and that of Antietam, on 
the 17th of September, the Confederates were beaten and routed. They 
retreated across the Potomac, and Maryland and Pennsylvania were saved. On 
the 22d of September, 1862, the President issued his glorious Emancipation 
Proclamation breaking the shackles of the slaves. 

The Emancipation Proclamation was hailed everywhere with great rejoic- 
ing throughout the free States over what was felt to be the downfall of slavery. 
The final issue of the Proclamation was on January i, 1863. 



34 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

During the events that led up to the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln 
was in great trouble as to the military situation. General McClellan, who was 
yet but thirty-six years of age, was a favorite with the army and the people, who 
hailed him as "the young Napoleon." As early as iS6i he had 147,695 men, 
and levies almost immediately to arrive would swell the number to 168,318. 
The President had strained his authority to the utmost in collecting a force 
to defend the capital and to organize an army sufficiently large to act on 
the aggressive. 

Lincoln had conceived the plan to blockade the entire coast-line of the 
Confederate States, to occupy the border States so as to repel invasion and to 
clear the Mississippi, thus relieving the West by opening its natural outlet 
to the seas. 

Events rapidly succeeded each other. Grant had taken and destroyed 
Belmont, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson had fallen, Floyd and Buckner at 
F"ort Donelson had asked Grant for terms of surrender, but he had replied, " No 
terms other than unconditional surrender." Floyd fled in the night and Buck- 
ner surrendered twelve thousand prisoners and great cjuantities of military 
stores. On the 6th of April was fought the bloody Battle of Shiloh ; the car- 
nage exceeded any battle in the world's history. General Albert Sidney John- 
ston was killed and many distinguished officers on both sides, and the starry 
flag floated over the recovered States of Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and 
Tennessee. Admiral Farragut, after bombarding the impregnable fortifications 
pi New Orleans, with equal audacity and skill, had safely run past them and 
destroyed the rebel fleet, and ascending the Mississippi had appeared before 
the city of New Orleans. 

But McClellan still remained inactive before Washington, with his large 
and costly force. Lincoln was anxiously consulting the generals, visiting Mc- 
Clellan often at his headquarters, trying to persuade the General to move the 
army that still maintained so brilliant a show on the banks of the Potomac. 
When this movement seemed impossible, he said, " If General McClellan has 
no use for the Army of the Potomac I should like to borrow it for a little 
while." 

At this time Lincoln was greatlv affected bv the illness of his two bovs. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 35 

Tad rallied and recovered, but Willie, a bright and beautiful boy of eleven 
years, died. The blow was heavy and hard to bear. 

The Confederates now had changed front, and the President and the Coun- 
cil of War had directed that the new base should be at Fortress Monroe, near 
wliich the famous fight between the " Merrimac " and the " Monitor " had taken 
place and the " Merrimac " had been beaten back to Norfolk. 

Still nothing was done by McClellan, and Lincoln, astounded at this in- 
explicable sluggishness, on the 25th of May, telegraphed to McClellan, " I 
think the time is near when you must either attack Richmond or give up the job." 

The country, in spite of all his delay and inactivity and his repeated dis- 
obedience of orders, still believed in the " young Napoleon," who at the opening 
of the war had achieved name and fame, and Lincoln, with his characteristic 
patience, was reluctant to remove McClellan while there was a chance of his 
retrieving himself, and it was not until he had worn out his reputation that he 
was removed. 



THE TURN OF THE TIDE 

McClellan was succeeded by General Ambrose Burnside as Commander 
of the Army of the Potomac. He was every inch a soldier and had proved his 
mettle at the Battle of Antietam, but still he assumed the command with many 
misgivings. 

The General planned a sudden and aggressive movement towards Rich- 
mond by Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock, but owing to a delay in the 
arrival of pontoons Lee occupied the heights above the city and before Burn- 
side was ready with his pontoon bridges he was confronted with Lee's whole 
force. In the face of almost insurmountable difficulties, with Lee's artillery 
commanding every approach from the opposite side of the river, the assault 
was made, but he was repulsed with terrible slaughter. Washington was filled 
with the wounded, and churches and public buildings were turned into hospi- 
tals, full of the wounded and the dying. 



36 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

The turn of the tide was during the month of July, 1S63. General Grant 
was attracting attention throughout the Union. He was assailed with slander 
and detraction; it was said that he was intemperate. Lincoln replied that he 
would like to send some of the same liquor to other generals of the army. 
Grant took command before Vicksburg and effected a combined operation by 
land and water. The tieet of gunboats ran the gauntlet of the batteries under 
a terrific fire and effected a junction with the Union troops that had been 
marched down by land, thus completely investing the city, which finally sur- 
rendered with a large force and an immense store of military supplies. This 
great victory caused a wave of joy to sweep through the North. The Missis- 
sippi tiowed unvexed to the sea. The Confederacy was broken in twain. 

Meade had succeeded at Gettysburg. The battle raged all day on the ist 
of July, neither army having secured a decided advantage. The lines were 
reformed during the night and the battle on the 3d of July decided the fate of 
the Rebel Army. After a terrible struggle Lee's army retired, but in good 
order. The rebel invasion was repulsed with great slaughter. 

Lee escaped by means of improvised pontoon bridges. In spite of this the 
Battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg were taken as harbingers of 
coming peace. 

In October Grant assumed command of the Army of the Mississippi with 
Sheridan and Sherman in subordinate commands. The battles of Missionary 
Ridge, Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga followed. Burnside was shut up 
in Tennessee, and great fear was felt on his account. When one day the long 
silence was broken by an urgent call for succor, Lincoln, relieved to find that 
Burnside was still safe, said it reminded him of a woman who lived in a forest- 
clearing in Indiana in which some of her children were continually being lost. 
When she heard a squawl from one of them in the distance, although she knew 
that the child was in danger, perhaps frightened by a rattlesnake, she would 
sa\', " Thank (iod ! there's one of my young ones that's not lost." 

Sherman relieved Burnside, the Confederates under Longstreet were 
driven back into Virginia, and Tennessee was delivered from the last attempt 
of the Confederacy to hold the State. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



37 




**'te- 



Lincoln in Richmond at the Ci.use of the War 



FOR A SECOND TERM 



" I DO not think it is wise to swap horses while crossing a stream," Lincoht 
had said to a friend, respecting his nomination for a second term, and indeed 
there seemed no one so ehgible or capable as Lincohi at this crisis. 

An important event of the winter was the appointment of General Grant 
to the rank of Lieutenant-General, a grade which had originally been created 
for General Washington, and had been held onlj^ by him. It was restored by 
Congress with the understandinaf that it was intended to honor General Grant. 



38 THE HEROIC LH^'E OF 

Grant had been summoned to Washington to receive his commission, and 
had been the lion at the President's reception, and when it was known that the 
hero of Vicksburg was in the room, every one crowded to see the General, 
When he bade- good-night to the President, he said, " This is a warmer cam- 
paign than I have witnessed during the war." 

The next day the President gave him his commission in the presence of 
the members of the Cabinet and a few friends. After the close of an important 
interview with the President, Grant was invited to a dinner at the White House, 
which Mrs. Lincoln had arranged in his honor, and insisted he must go. " Be- 
sides," said he, " I have had enough of this show business, Mr. President." 

Hitherto' the armies of the West and the East had acted independently, 
but now they were to be no longer, as Grant said, " like a balky team, no two 
ever pulling together," and Grant's policy, " to hammer continuously against the 
armed force of the enemy," was to be the policy of the administration, and Lin- 
coln told Grant, " You are vigilant and self-reliant. Pleased with this, I do not 
wish to obtrude any restraints or constraints upon 3'ou." 

Success now generally crowned the Union arms and the Confederates were 
steadily pressed back on to Richmond. At every fresh victory Lincoln was 
called to speak to the crowds from the window of the White House. On one of 
these occasions Lincoln read a despatch from Grant, " Our losses have been 
heavy as well as those of the enemy, and I propose to fight it out on this line if 
it takes all summer." 

Sherman also had been successful in tlie west, driving the enemy back 
into Georgia, winning battle after battle, until finally he invested Atlanta, the 
important railroad centre, which he required as a base of supplies. Hood, hav- 
ing to drive Sherman to the northward, moved against Tennessee, but was 
beaten and put to flight. 

General Early, of the Confederates, again raided Maryland and was within 
seven miles of W^ashington, but Grant sent two army corps, intercepted the 
rebels and saved Washington from attack. 

In August and September, 1864, Sheridan cleared the Valley of the Shen- 
andoah from the rebel raiders, and he did his work so well that, as he said, " A 
crow flying over the valley would have to carry his rations with him." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 39 

Horace Greeley and many Republicans opposed Lincoln's renomination as 
being too conserv^ative, and some there were who were considering the name of 
General Grant. Lincoln said, " If the people think that General Grant can end 
the rebellion sooner by being in this place I shall be very glad to get out of it." 

Lincoln had no fears of the people, and the result justified his confidence. 
By the time the Republican Convention met at Baltimore, June 8, 1864, Lin- 
coln's renomination was assured and he was nominated with tremendous enthu- 
siasm with hardly a dissenting vote. Andrew Johnson was chosen as vice- Pres- 
ident, an important choice, in view of subsequent events. 

In August, the Democrats at Chicago nominated George B. McClellan. 
Lincoln had shrewdly said, " They must nominate a war candidate on a peace 
platform or a peace candidate on a war platform." 

The election was an overwhelming triumph for Lincoln. Three States 
alone. New Jersey, Kentucky and Delaware, recorded hostile votes. Lincoln 
had 212 electoral votes out of 223, and a clear majority of 411,428. Lincoln 
replied to the first party who congratulated him, " If I know my heart my grat- 
itude is free from any taint of personal triumph. ... It is no pleasure to me to 
triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of 
the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of human- 
ity." 

The second inauguration was on March 4, 1S65. The day opened dark 
and dreary, but when Lincoln rose to deliver his address the sun broke out from 
the clouds. It was a hopeful omen and Lincoln said of it the next day, " Let's 
accept it as a good sign," and the thousands there assembled so accepted it, 
comparing the almost certainty of the end of the war with the doubt and gloom 
of the first inauguration. 

The address made a deep impression on all who heard it, and henceforth 
Abraham Lincoln had a high place among the world's greatest orators and 
statesmen. 



40 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 



COLLAPSE OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Sherman's march to the sea had once more broken the Confederacy. The 
arms of the Federals had everywhere on land and sea been crowned with suc- 
cess. Charleston had been abandoned. The capture of Port Fisher had virtu- 
ally cut off their last possible port of supplies on the Atlantic ; news had 
reached Lincoln of Lee having sought an interview with Grant. Sheridan and 
Grant were closing in on Lee ; Petersburg had surrendered ; Richmond had 
fallen. Jefferson Davis, seeing all hope was gone, had fled in disguise, but was 
captured later and sent a prisoner to Fort Monroe. 

Lincoln, as soon as possible after the news reached him of the fall of Rich- 
mond, unattended save by the boat's crew from a gunboat near at hand, accom- 
panied only by his son Tad, entered the late capital of the Confederacv. 

At the village of the Appomattox Court House, on April 7, 1865, the final 
act opened. On April 9th Lee surrendered to Grant. There without cere- 
mony or fuss of any kind Lee and Grant met, and the surrender was completed, 
and the victorious General fed, with Union-Army rations, the well-nigh fam- 
ished rebel soldiers. 

The whole North rejoiced with exceeding great joy, not in triumph over a 
fallen foe, but with gratitude that the long, sad, cruel war was over. 

At Washington, the city made it a general holiday. A great crowd of peo- 
ple dragged howitzers into the grounds of the White House, and at Lincoln's 
appearance at the window men threw up their hats and cheered and shouted for 
a speech. 

Lincoln raised his hand, and when silence was restored he brushed the 
tears from, his eyes, and briefly congratulated them on the great and happy re- 
sult, but said he, " Later on there will be a more formal celebration of this 
momentous event and then I shall have nothing to say if it is all dribbled out 
of me now." 

The people laughed good-humoredly at the homely saying. Lincoln con- 
cluded by calling for the " captured tunc " of " Dixie," which he said " was ours 




.*l*»*«™' 




, ! I^J ■' 



HE HOSPITAL. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 41 

by tlie laws of war." Then the President called for three cheers for General 
Grant and his ofificers, then three more for the ofiflcers and men of the navy. 
When these were given with a will the crowd dispersed, but reluctantly. 

On, the nth was the formal celebration to which Lincoln had alluded. 
The city was illuminated by the Government. At the White House a vast 
crowd cheered and shouted. Fireworks hissed and crackled. The guns of the 
naval batteries fired salutes and brass bands added to the joyous acclaim. An 
immense crowd gathered at the White House to hear the President's speech. 
In a few noble yet simple and generous words he gave all honor to General 
Grant. "No part," said Lincoln, "of the honor of the plan or execution is 
mine; to General Grant, his skilful officers and brave men all belongs. The 
gallant navv stood read}', but was not in touch to take an active part." 

He then proceeded to discuss the problem of reconstruction in a most 
powerful oration of argument and appeal in behalf of the liberal policy inaugu- 
rated in Louisiana, which, though it was as yet but an experiment, excited the 
indignation of the politicians. This was Lincoln's last speech to the people. 

Two days after Lee's surrender. Grant hastened to Washington to discuss 
with the War Ofifice measures to stop recruiting and for the reduction of the 
war cliarges, at that time amounting to four million dollars a day. On the 
14th Grant attended a meeting of the Cabinet, at which was discussed the sub- 
ject of the Southern States. 

The President and Mrs. Lincoln had accepted an invitation to Ford's 
Theatre for the evening of the 14th, Good Friday, and the President asked the 
General and Mrs. Grant to accompany them, but ,a previous personal engage- 
ment to see their children, who were at school at Burlington, N. J., prevented 
them accepting the invitation. 

In the afternoon the President drove out wdth Mrs. Lincoln and was in 
unusually good spirits; about nine o'clock in the evening the President and 
Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by Major Rathbone and a lady, entered his box. 
Soon after the President and his party had entered, when the cheering had sub- 
sided, some one gave a visiting card to the attendant in the corridor, entered the 
vestibule of the President's box and closed and fastened the door behind him. 
A moment later the sound of a pistol shot roused the crowded house. A 



42 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

stranger was seen in the front of the President's box; Major Rathbonc grappled 
with Iiim, but was cut in the arm and lost his hold of the man, who vaulted over 
the front of the box to the stage. He stumbled as he fell, but instantly recover- 
ing himself he hastened across the stage. Turning to the awestruck audience, 
he brandished the bloody dagger with which he had slashed Major Rathbone, and 
exclaimed in melodramatic theatre style, " Sic semper tyrannis ! " (" Ever so 
to tyrants!") An employee named Edward Spangler held the door open for 
him ; the assassin's horse was held by a boy belonging to the theatre. Booth 
mounted it with difiFiculty, for in his jump to the stage he had broken the small 
bone in his leg, but he rode rapidly away. 

The bullet had passed through the brain of the President, stopping just 
short of the left eye. Unconscious, he was carried to a house opposite the 
theatre, w-here he breathed his last at twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock in 
the morning. The great heart was stilled for ever. Abraham Lincoln was dead. 

The assassin, crippled and suffering, evaded pursuit for eleven days, but 
at length on the 25th of April a scjuad of cavalry traced him to a barn in 
Virginia. On his refusal to surrender, one of them aimed through a crack in 
the door and shot the assassin through the brain. He died the next morning. 

Before many days the Government had arrested seven men and a woman, 
Mary E. Surratt, charged with being in the conspiracy. Mrs. Surratt and three 
of the men were hanged and three sent to the Dry Tortugas, two for life, 
Edward Spangler for six years. 

Thus Abraham Lincoln met the fate which, as we have seen, had been 
presented to him on the day after his first election. Threats of assassination 
had been sent to him again and again, but he refused all protection, saying, " If 
I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it is to die over 
and over again." 

While the tragedy was enacted at Ford's Theatre, Mr. Seward was at- 
tacked in his own home, where he w-as confined to his bed by an accident. The 
man obtained admittance as an assistant to the doctor. Throwing himself on 
the Secretary he stabbed him in the neck and face. He was surprised by 
Seward's two sons, but wounding them he made his escape. 

No doubt the conspiracy was wide-spread, and the plan was to remove by 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



43 



violence the President, General Grant, Mr. Seward and Secretary Stanton, in the 
idea that the sudden distraction would cause the collapse of the Government, 
and that anarchy would be the result. 

The sun rose red and bright over Washington on the morning of the 15th, 
as the body of Abrahani Lincoln was borne, followed by a group of sorrowing, 




The Assassination of Lincoln 



silent, stern-faced men, to the White House. Grief and revenge for this crime 
struggling for the mastery was the twofold feeling which swept over the 
land. Flags everywhere were lowered to half-mast. Bells were tolled, minute- 
guns fired, all business was suspended and for days the nation was absorbed in 
its mighty grief. 

On Wednesday, April 19th, Lincoln lay in state in the Capitol in the 
rotunda, guarded by high officers of the army and navy and a detachment of 
soldiers. Many thousands passed the bier to take a last look at their beloved 
President. 



44 THE HEROIC LIFE OF 

Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois. Two 
thousand miles were traversed; the people lined the entire route, standing with 
uncovered heads as the train swept by, guarded to his grave by bronzed and 
battle-scarred generals of the war. His body was laid to rest near his old 
home, and in due time a marble monument was raised by the loving hands of 
the people whom, under God, he had saved. 

The whole civilized world was arrested in its daily course by this tragic 
calamity. Friends and neighbors all had loved " Honest Abe Lincoln." 

F'rom all the States and cities of the Union, and from emperors and kings 
and queens, from legislative assemblies, from people of all ranks, and from con- 
ventions of the plain people of many lands, came messages of condolence, respect 
and sorrow — an unprecedented and spontaneous tribute to the spotless, un- 
selfish and heroic life of Abraham Lincohi. 



ANECDOTES OF LINCOLN 



A HORSK STORV 

James Larkin, one of young Lincoln's neighbors, one day was bragging 
about his horse. 

" I've got about the best horse in the county," said he to young Abe. " I 
ran him nine miles in three minutes, and he never fetched a long breath." 

" I guess," said Abe dryly, " he fetched a good many short ones, though." 

NO VICES FEW VIRTUES 

Lincoln one day rode in a stage with an old Kentuckian, who socially 
offered some tobacco and French brandy. Lincoln declined both. 

When they separated, the Kentuckian said, " See here, stranger, I don't 
want to offend vou, but my experience has taught me that a man who has 
no vices has but d — d few virtues." 

LOfC. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 45 

KEPT HIS PART OF THE BARGAIN 

No matter who was with the President, Tad was always welcome, and he 
generally accompanied his father. Once on the way to Fort Monroe with a 
party, Tad was very troublesome, so at length the President said : 

" Tad, if you will be a good boy and not disturb me till we get to Fort 
Monroe, Fll give you a dollar." 

The hope of reward was effectual only a short time and Tad was soon as 
noisy as ever, but when they reached the fort. Tad said, very promptly : 

" Father, I want my dollar." 

Lincoln looked at him for an instant, then giving him the dollar, he said: 
"Well, my son, at any rate I will keep my part of the bargain." 

GOD KNOWS WHEN 

An old copybook of Lincoln's has the following, written when fourteen 
years old : 

" 'Tis Abraham Lincoln holds the pen. 
He will be good, but God knows when ! " 

COME TO SUPPER 

Lincoln was receiving a delegation, and Tad came into the room and put- 
ting his mouth to his father's ear and his hand to his mouth, said in a boy's 
whisper, " Ma says come to supper." 

All heard the announcement, and Lincoln said, "You see, gentlemen, if I 
am elected, it will never do to make this young man a member of my Cabinet, 
for it is plain he cannot be trusted with State secrets." 

WHICH SIDE SHOULD BEMN FRONT 

Once, on a trial, his opponent pulled off his coat and vest as he grew warm, 
which was admissible in frontier courts. 

At that time shirts opening at the back were unusual. Lincoln, knowing 
the prejudice of primitive people for any affectation of superior social rank, 
when he made his address in reply, said : 

"Gentlemen of the jury, having justice on my side I don't think you will 
be at all influenced by the gentleman's pretended knowledge of the law, when 
you see he does not even know which side of his shirt should be in front." 
There was a general laugh and Lincoln's case was won. 



46 THE HEROIC LH^Tt OF 

HER ONI.V FAULT 

Major Hill charged Lincoln with making; defamatory remarks about his 
wife, and was very insulting. 

When Lincoln got a chance to edge in a word he replied that he enter- 
tained a high opinion of Mrs. Hill and the only thing he knew to her discredit 
was in her being Major Hill's wife., 

herndon's half 

Lincoln never kept any account book. If any one paid him any money on 
account of the firm, on arriving at the office he would divide with his partner, 
or if not there, he would wrap his share in a piece of paper and place it in his 
partner's drawer, marking it Roe vs. Doe — Herndon's half. 

PASSES TO RICHMOND 

A gentleman asked the President for a pass to Richmond before the fall 
of that city. " I should be very happy to oblige you," said the President, " if 
my passes were respected, but the fact is that within the past two years I have 
given passes to 250,000 men and not one has got there yet." 

SHOOTING won't DO HIM ANY GOOD 

Judge Kellog, hearing that a young townsman was to be shot the next day 
for a serious misdemeanor, went to Mr. Stanton and urged in the strongest 
manner for a reprieve, but the Secretary was inexorable. 

Leaving the War Department he went to the White House. Mr. Lincoln 
had retired, but on pledging himself to take the consequences of the act, the 
judge pressed his way through all obstacles to the President's bedroom, and in an 
excited manner he stated that he had just received the announcement of the 
hour of execution. 

" This man must not be shot, Mr. President. I can't help what he has 
done," said he. " WHiy, he is an old townsman of mine. I cannot allow him to 
be shot." 

Mr. Lincoln had remained quietly in bed listening to his old friend's pro- 
testations. At length he said : 

" W^ell, I don't believe shooting will do him anv good. Give me that pen." 

.So saying, the President again cut the red tape, and another poor fellow's 
life was saved. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 47 

Lincoln's kindly side in war 
A lady was so thankful for the release of her husband that she was in the 
act of kneeling in thankfulness. "Get up," said the President; "don't kneel to 
me, but thank God, and go." 



An old lady for the same reason came forward with tears in her eyes. 
Said she, "Good-bye, Mr. Lincoln; I shall probably never meet you again till 
we meet in Heaven. The President was deeply moved. She had the Presi- 
dent's hand in hers. Following her to the door, he said, " If I ever get to the 
resting place you speak of, I am sure I shall meet you there." 



A woman plainly clad insisted on seeing the President. F"ather and son 
were both in the army. Would he not discharge the latter and let him go 
home to help his mother? 

A few strokes of the pen, a gentle nod of the head, and the little woman, 
her eyes filling with tears, expressed the grateful thanks she could not speak. 

COULD NOT SIGN DEATH WARRANTS 

In the early part of the war, Lincoln wrote a pardon for a young soldier 
who had been sentenced to death for sleeping at his post. He remarked to a 
friend, '" I could not go into eternity with that young boy's blood on my skirts." 
Then he added, " It is not to be wondered at that a boy raised on a farm and 
going to bed at dark should fall asleep when set to watch. I cannot consent to 
have him shot for such an act." 



Said an officer, " The first week of my command there were twenty-four 
deserters sentenced by court-martial to be shot, but the President refused to 
sign the death-warrants. 

" I went to Washington and had an interview. I said : 

" ' Mr. President, unless these men are made examples of, the army itself is 
in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to the many.' 

" He replied, ' Mr. General, there are already too many weeping widows in 
the United States. For God's sake don't ask me to add to their number, for I 
won't do it' " 



48 THE HEROIC LIFE OF LINCOLN 

A HORSE TRADE 

Lincoln and a certain judge got bantering each other about trading horses, 
and they agreed to make a trade without either of them seeing the other's 
horse, and no backing out under forfeiture of twenty-five dollars. 

When Lincoln was seen coming with a wooden sawhorse on his shoulder, 
great laughter ensued in the crowd, which was increased when Lincoln, on 
surveying the judge's horse, said: 

"Well, Judge, this is the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse 
trade." 

LOST HIS HEAD 

Jefferson Davis insisted on being recognized as President in the negotia- 
tions with Washington, and Mr. Lincoln refused consent. Mr. Hunter referred 
to the correspondence between Charles I and his parliament as a precedent. 

Mr. Lincoln, with one of his hardest hits, replied, " Upon questions of 
histor}' I must refer you to Mr. Seward, who is posted in such matters, and 
I don't profess to be; but my only distinct recollection is that King Charles 
lost his head." 

TOO KNOTTY TO SPLIT 

One day Governor went to the War Department in a towering rage. 

A friend said to the President : " I suppose you found it difficult to make 
large concessions to him." 

" Oh, no," he replied, " I did not make anything. You have heard of that 
Illinois farmer who got rid of a big log that was too big to haul out, too knotty 
to split and too wet and soggy to burn. In response to his neighbors, who 
wanted to know how he got rid of it, he said, ' Well, boys, if you won't divulge 
the secret, I'll tell you how I got rid of it — I ploughed around it! ' Now," he 
said, " don't tell anybody, but that's how I got rid of the Governor. I ploughed 
round him and I was afraid every minute he'd see what I was at." 



